1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording and reproducing apparatus capable of recording and reproducing content data.
2. Description of Related Art
A recording and reproducing apparatus, such as a hard disc drive (HDD) recorder, which performs the recording and the reproducing of content data, generally adopts the method of selecting a desired piece of content in a title list displayed on a display at the time of selecting a piece of reproducing content among the pieces of recorded content.
FIG. 13 is a view illustrating a title list to be displayed on a display at the time of selecting a piece of reproducing content in a conventional recording and reproducing apparatus. As shown in FIG. 13, for example, the program information (that is, the title, the broadcasting station, the broadcasting date and time, the channel, and the like) of each piece of recorded content is displayed in a list in the conventional title list. A user selects a desired piece of content in the list of these pieces of program information.
However, there are problems of the difficulty of judging the content of a program only by the program information, such as the title, displayed in the title list of FIG. 13, and of the difficulty of easily selecting a desired piece of reproducing content. In particular, when a series of programs having the same title is recorded, it is very difficult to judge the content of each of the programs only by the recording date and time thereof.
The method of editing the program title of recorded content with a remote controller, a keyboard connected to the apparatus main body, and the like, is known accordingly. However, this method requires superfluous trouble for the editing operation, and the editing operation itself is troublesome. Consequently the method has a problem for a user to be inconvenient.
In addition, there are known methods, such as the method of displaying the opening screen of content as a thumbnail image, the method of reproducing the digest of content in a thumbnail screen, the method of extracting a part by which the content of a program can be judged from recorded content to reproduce the part, and the like. However, these methods of performing preview reproduction take time for performing the reproduction of content to judge the content, and consequently these methods are inconvenient.
Accordingly, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-354921 discloses a sound recording and reproducing apparatus to enable a user to know the recorded content of the main sound easily by inputting a title or a memorandum to indicate the content of the main sound by a sound, and by recording the title or the memorandum onto a recording medium with the title or the memorandum associated with the main sound to reproduce the recorded title or the memorandum.
However, because the technique disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-354921 cannot input the sound memorandum into the apparatus main body by remote control, the technique has the problem of the remaining inconvenience for a user.